Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-03-12

TWO OF us young companions nau pefsCau-
ed him to accompany them to the rooms of
claifvoyant, fortune teller or mind
reader-she may have been all three
whose repu,ed marvellous powers had be.
come the wonder of many thousands.
judged from what he said that these COM
panIons were credulous and quite easily
satisfied with the exhibition that was given
them. Not so Raymond. He sat, scornful
and impatient VIII lie the seeress was going
through her mummeries and predictions
with them; and when at last she turned to
him and asked if she should examine his
pulse, he answered very CURLY, not to say
rudely:
Not mine, madam. Thank heaven,
am above all such nonsense. Keep your
charlatan tricks and your humbuggery foi
weak minds"
have more than once heard of such
people as she being thrown into violent
rage by such plain and cutting language as
this. 1t was SO with her. She was an
aged Spanish woman, with cross of the
Moorish blood, and pair of black eyes
that now blazed viciously. Size came
straight up to Raymond, grasped both his
wrists, and looked like basilsk right into
his eyes.
Fool" she almost Kissed. "Why do
you tempt me to blast you--why anger me
without cause?"
Raymond, not at all impressed, so far,
laughed in her face.
Don't get into passion, good mother"
he siid. Take it coolly."
Then hear, cried the crone, lifting her
hand and her voice together. 81 see your
fate; 1 know it; you shall know it, too, and
the knowledge shall follow you like ter
rible curse. Remember the 29th of April
On that day, in some year, you shall die o
violent a miserable death. Remember
She loosened his hands, and fell back,
exhausted by her own violence.
Raymond left the house with his COM
panions; and while he rldiculed the whole
incident, they were profoundly impressed
with it. And now began the strange men-
tai phenomenon that from that day had
clouded his existence. Seeking to dismiss
the scene from his mind, he found, to his
amazement, that he was absolutely unable
to do so. With every disposition to treat
the whole thing as an absurdity, and with a
strength of mind and character unusual in
youth, he discovered, to his consterna-
ton, that, day by day, conviction of the
truth of the prediction was overshadowing
his mind. Struggle as he might, he could
not shake it off. Gradually, he was liter
ally oyerpowered by the terror of the idea.
He struggled through two years of his col
legiate course, and then abandoned his
studies; this horrible phantom came be-
tween him and his books. He had sought
medical aid far and wide, without obtain
ing the slightest relief.
But how can l tell you," he continued
with pathos in his voice that haunts me
yet, "of a 1.-THE that suffer when then that
Four of them have l passed since my
fate was rno1a known m
another is near at hand-the torments
of the damned are as nothing to mine.
Life looks so bright, SO enhancing to me,
as see it afar off; but here I am, walking
in the very shadow of death-doomed-O,
God!-doomed"
Even at that day had acquired some
skill in the treatment of diseases of the
brain; and l do not hesitate also to observe
that 1 was much wiser then in my own con-
ceit than | have since been. Such profess
sional knowledge as l then had told me
that here was a most remarkable hallucina-
ton, case worthy of the greatest of the
specialists; and professional pride, as we'll
as the natural interest that l took in the
unhappy son of my old friend, led me at
once to the determination to take him into
my own house, to watch over him, to cure
him if possible, rs if he had been my own
son.
Subsequent events convinced that this
was not, in all respects, the wisest course.
There were others, one other, at least, who
should have been thought of in such an ar
rangement. But who is wise, even at fifty?
So did not even intimate to Raymond
Wager, overweight as he was with the
strange phantasy that possessed him, that
thought he was scared by shadow.
did not excite his already overburdened
nervous system with any commonplace
suggestions about exercising bis will, and
throwing off his illusions. | simply gave
him, for the time being, what he sought,
and was most in need of-sympathy. Just
what l said, it is unnecessary to repeat.
Very kindly, indeed, spoke to him about
the old friendship between his father and
myself, and my great desire to be of
service to him in his trouble; and wound
up with hearty offer of my house for his
asylum.
The scared, painful look vanished from
his face as l spoke; but he hesitated.
took his arm and led him into the sitting
room, where Jeanne and her mother, our
housekeeper (for l was n bachelor, we're
together. l presented him to my sister,
and the exquisite, high-bred politeness of
the gentleman, without trace of the emo
ton that had agitated him during the past
hour, came out in his greeting.
And then Jeanne and he were made ac-
quainted.
Many a long and troubled year has
passed since then, and much has hap
pened to me meantime: but never have
seen, never shall l see, SO hand
some a couple as they. l have told what
Raymond was; | have not the heart to
speak in the same way of Jeanne; to tell of
her beauty, her goodness, her charms of
mind and person. As they touched hands,
as their eyes met while they exchanged the
commonplaces of such occasions, as later
noticed them at the piano, l knew as we'll
as l knew three months later, that here was
genuine, positive case of love at first
sight. And this was my doing, for good or
ill. l cannot think of it now without deep
emotion.
PART II.-THE SUBSTANCE.
l am not writing love story, and GER
tainly have no wish to prolong the love
passages in this melancholy narrative. As
may readily be supposed, from what has
been narrated, the first weeks following the